FEATURE - Kashmiri shahtoosh weavers struggle for survival
Date: 02-Jan-03
Country: INDIA
Author: Sheikh Mushtaq
They were not sheltering from the insurgency which has raged in Kashmir for 13 years - Gul was making a shawl from shahtoosh, one of the world's finest wools that is banned because it is derived from the hair of an endangered Tibetan antelope, the chiru.
It's a risky job, and getting caught could have meant a jail sentence. But Gul, a 60-year-old with a salt-and-pepper beard, says he doesn't have a choice.
"I know only shahtoosh weaving. At this age I cannot switch over to any other business. As long as possible, I will stick to it," he sighed.
Gul is one of nearly 50,000 former shahtoosh weavers who have been struggling for survival since the federal government banned the 600-year-old trade about seven years ago.
"There were 100,000 people directly or indirectly related with this trade. But about 40,000 to 50,000 weavers and manufacturers have been directly hit. Most weavers are now jobless," says Kaleem-ullah Khan, spokesman of the Shahtoosh Manufacturers and Traders Association.
The shahtoosh trade has been banned internationally since 1979 under the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) because the chiru is said to be slaughtered for its wool.
International wildlife organisations say five chirus are shot and skinned to make one shahtoosh shawl, which is so fine that an entire shawl can be pulled through a wedding ring.
Animal activists estimate there are about 75,000 chirus left today and the number is rapidly declining.
Traders in shahtoosh - Persian for "fit for a king" - say the antelope sheds its wool naturally by rubbing itself against shrubs and rocks in summer and it is these wisps of shahtoosh that are collected in the remote Himalayan plateau.
EXPENSIVE FASHION ACCESSORY
Despite the ban, some weavers continue to make shahtoosh shawls that fetch as much as $17,000 apiece in trendy fashion cities such as London, New York and Los Angles. A nearly three-metre shawl weighs barely 160 grams (five ounces). Legend has it that French emperor Napoleon presented a shahtoosh shawl to Josephine more than 200 years ago.
"Josephine was so delighted that she ordered hundreds of shawls. That is how shahtoosh, the art, shot to prominence in Europe," Gul said.
Despite the ban, an underground trade in shahtoosh still thrives, but the weavers risk spending years in prison or paying a huge fine if caught.
"We used to weave more than 200 shawls a year but after the ban we make only 30 to 40. Moreover, you are always scared because if you are caught you are just finished," said Gul.
Wildlife protection groups say every year poachers shoot thousands of chirus, which live at an altitude of 12,300-18,3000 feet on the Tibetan plateau. Shahtoosh is then smuggled through Nepal to Kashmir.
Government officials say hundreds of shawls have been confiscated from India, Hong Kong and other cities in recent years, but it is difficult to stamp out the trade.
"The trade has been completely banned in Kashmir and we are taking action against all those found involved," Kulbushan Jandial, a Jammu and Kashmir government spokesman, told Reuters.
"But it is impossible to stop it completely like other crimes."
Jandial said most shahtoosh traders were now moving into making shawls from pashmina, a fine wool taken from the shaggy coat of a domestic goat from Kashmir's Ladakh region.
Wildlife activist officials also say it is difficult to stop poaching and the illegal shahtoosh trade.
"The vast and largely uninhabited regions where chirus live are extremely difficult to patrol. So authorities in Tibet cannot overnight stop poaching," said Javid Ahamad, a wildlife official.
"The shawl is priceless on fashion street. So soft and silken, one would die to wear one," the Wildlife Trust of India said in its anti-shahtoosh campaign.
"The irony is that nobody really 'dies' to wear the shahtoosh. Except the original owner. The chiru or Tibetan antelope."